You can also get an extension for Chrome which allows you to flip article with websites (most of my flips come from things I read in the Flipboard app…except in the case of one my magazines, which I’ll explain below).

It’s really about your curation…your taste and editing skills.

You put in what you think is interesting, or what you think other people will think is interesting.

You generally don’t write anything additional about it, unless you are using the browser extension. In that case, you can add a short caption about it (which you can not edit later, by the way).

I thought I’d give you a rundown on my magazines and how they are doing (at time of writing…it changes rapidly).

12,088 viewers (this has close to tripled since the last time I did an update on these…which was just in April!)

185,200 page flips (that’s approximate: they say 182.5k)

16,299 articles (I’d have so say my curation is better here, or at least, more focused)

645 followers (since this was a new measurement recently, I looked up what it meant at Flipboard: they explain the new stats here. I had misunderstood page flips before…I thought it was when people flipped an article I picked into their own magazine, but it turns out it is “the number of items viewed in the magazine. Readers visit the mag: page flips are the number of items viewed…I think that means they click on it in the magazine to go to the original article. The number of articles are the ones I put into it, and followers are the actual subscribers. This number has tripled since the last time)

Engagement: 1,136% (flips/articles: this has gone up since last time)

This one is based on my blog, ILMK (I Love My Kindle). They aren’t the same, though. I write original material in the blog itself. I told myself that I’d average 1,000 words a day, and I do. I write a lot of different things, often providing analysis and opinion.

For the Flipboard magazine, none of that happens…you just get articles from other people (except when I flip one of my own in there).

It does allow me to do some different things.

For example, I can more easily flip ten different articles on a new piece of Amazon hardware into the magazine than I can link to them in the blog. Linking in the blog takes some work: it’s simple to flip (just a couple of clicks or taps).

There are also times when something is too short to warrant a full post in the blog. Those types of things go into my Round-ups, but I don’t do those every day.

Another thing? I do a lot more images in the magazine: it’s just more compatible with it. My blog is read on non-Fire Kindles, and images are tougher there.

Here are some recent articles as examples:

Ten Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books/Series to Feed Your Love of Reading – Or: Some girl in library school tries to tell you what to read (The Mary Sue)

to The Measured Circle…it’s a better fit there, I think, than in ILMK (although I still link to the articles in ILMK. It’s too soon for that to have impacted the actual blog or the Flipboard magazine much…but I think it will.

To give you a sense of it, here are ten recent articles and their sources. Earlier, I did the most recent ten in order, but that’s not really representative, since I may read a number from the same source at the same time

Elementary John Noble debuts as Sherlock’s father – Exclusive First Look (John Noble)

Catching up with Robert Vaughn, the original man from Uncle (Entertainment Weekly)

The Ravenna, The Manticora, and 11 Somewhat Lesser-Known Monsters (Fate)

I Spoke To The Woman Who Filmed A Haunted Puppet Moving In Her Basement (The Anomalist)

NBC Greenlights Pilot for a Sitcom Set in the DC Universe (Topless Robot)

Alexa Skills come to the Echo, plus more home automation (me) 😉

Fear the Walking Dead: Alycia Denham-Carey hopes people will be ‘confronted’ by the new take (FearTWD)

Another Skunk Ape Spotted in Florida (Mysterious Universe)

Apple car clues emerge from letter to test facility

Astronomers discover the smallest known supermassive black hole

Doc Savage Fanflip

“Doc Savage, the forerunner of Superman and Batman, has been one of my fictional heroes for a very long time. Thanks in part to Doc, I try to better myself to help others, and to do so with “…no regard for anything but justice.” A “fanflip” is my new term for a Flipboard magazine by a fan, dedicated to one topic. I will bring you not only Doc Savage news, but Doc stories and resources from around the web. Think of it as a scrapbook with news.”

I look for interesting things on the web about Doc. If Shane Black ever gets out the Doc Savage movie, this may get more popular, but I’m happy to ferret out the oddball bits and pieces. This is the hardest one to which to add things…content jc Sust doesn’t change as often on the web.

“Has the world always been weird? These news stories from the 19th and early 20th centuries bring you tales of lake monsters, the Hollow Earth, ghosts, and more! Edited by Bufo Calvin, of The Measured Circle blog. Note: these articles reflect the culture of their times. As such, they may use terms and concepts which some modern readers will find offensive”

My original idea on this was that I was writing a book made up in large part of public domain newspaper articles. I was writing pieces to provide context, both because I wanted to do that, and because it would enable me to sell it in the Kindle store (they require original material…nothing purely public domain…that was a policy which evolved over time).

It’s a labor of love, for sure!

I find it fascinating. I’m very interested in how people think about things, and how that has changed over time.

At this point, I’ve been using the Library of Congress’ fabulous “Chronicling America” resource. The negative to that one is that the pages don’t display very well on smaller screens. However, you can click to display the page as a PDF, and that can work quite well.

You also do have to read through the newspaper page to find the article…I also think that’s fun. 😉

I do feel like I’ve made some real discoveries: I posted one that is about an apparently hoaxed photograph of a UFO (airship)…in 1897! I’ve found that my pace has slowed considerably, though…it’s tougher to find ones than it was, since I’ve already looked at some of the more obvious search terms.

A STRANGE MONSTER: Mountain People Alarmed and Fortifying (Knoxville Weekly Chronicle, February 19 1873) [This one was interesting…”a huge black bear with mane and head like a lion, but had horns like an elk upon it…”]

THE WEREWOLF: A Human Monster In Which the Ancients Firmly Believed (Daily Press, Newport News, Virginia, October 7 1905)

A PESSIMISTIC PHILOSOPHER: Interesting Talks on the Stories of the Werewolf (Evening Star, Washington D.C., December 27 1893)

Skeleton of Indian Giant (The Broad Ax, Salt Lake City Utah, December 23 1916

Again, this one can go in “flaps” of one topic, because my search sometimes leads me to related articles. I think this gives you some idea, though.

These are not hard to do, and they aren’t taking significant time or creative energy away from my other creative work. I don’t get any money directly from them, although they might lead to more discovery of other things where I do.

I do want to say that ILMK has made a big move in catching up to and then surpassing The Measured Circle in readers. I’m still impressed with just how quickly these are growing.

Enjoy!

Do you have a Flipboard magazine about which you want to tell me and my readers? Feel free to comment on this post.

When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.

Hello. You have stated on more than one occasion that you prefer TTS to audio books when you want to listen to a book. I just picked up through Kindle Unlimited Barry Eisler’s first John Rain book, “A Clean Kill In Tokyo. The audio version is narrated by the Barry Eisler. Does your preference towards TTS over audiobook change if the voice is the voice of the author. In addition, would your preference for TTS over audio book change if the book is non fiction instead of fiction? Otherwise thank you very much for ILMK.

No, the author reading the book doesn’t make a difference to me. As you note, I don’t like listening to an audiobook (unless I’ve sight-read the book already), because I don’t like the narrator interpreting the characters for me. That goes for the narrator being the author or an actor.

Yes, it is different for non-fiction. 🙂 Since there aren’t characters involved there, it wouldn’t concern me enough to stop me from listening to an audiobook. However, I wouldn’t prefer it to TTS (text-to-speech) in that case, and I think I would generally still prefer TTS. It just wouldn’t be a dealbreaker. 🙂